Tag: Aakash

shuktara home for young people with disabilities

Aakash assessment at REACH

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Over the years most of our young people have attended REACH school. Pappu took Aakash to REACH for his assessment and as you can see from the photo below in the car he could hardly contain his excitement. He completely won them over not only with his ability to put vegetable pieces in the right place but also with his winning smile.

Aakash starts school next week - for the first time ever! We couldn't be more proud of him.

To read more about Aakash please click here.

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Durga Puja – visiting the pandals

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If you follow shuktara you know that Durga Puja is the biggest festival of the year in Kolkata. All over the city elaborate handmade pandals are created to house clay statues of the goddess Durga and her family who come down once a year from their heavenly abode for a five day holiday.

This year the young people of shuktara visited the pandals on the 1st day of Pujas which was Shashti and 3rd day which was Ashtami. Everyone dressed up in their new clothes, piled in the cars and went pandal-hopping.

(thank you Raegan Hodge for all the fabulous photos!)

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Shuktara documentary update

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In October Phoebe Brown and the film crew from Atlanta will be headed back to Kolkata to continue shooting the new documentary. From Phoebe's GoFundMe page:

"As I've been working on this edit - I had the chance to pull up some great field photos and was reminded again (as if I needed reminding!) how special everyone at shuktara is. I want to give a special shout out to Pappu - whose spirit just shines in these images. Not only is he just a genuinely wonderful human being, but he puts up with our 1 million questions, translates both Bengali and sign language, helps us lug gear, gets us places we need to go....all while making sure the day to day of running shuktara is smooth. I hate that we have to work you overtime when we visit but I can't wait to do it again!"

Pappu is an extraordinary and inspiring person - his deep commitment to shuktara is obvious in these photos. To see the latest news about the documentary or to help support this amazing film please click here:

www.gofundme.com/shuktarafilm

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Raksha Bandan at shuktara

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Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu festival that celebrates the bond between brother and sister. Traditionally sisters tie a "rakhi" (thread or ornamental bracelet) around the right wrist of their brothers.

Every year a few women associated with shuktara go to the boys' home and tie rakhis on all of the boys and young men - as you can see they are absolutely delighted to participate in this celebration of the bond between siblings.

According to Wikipedia this "transformed tradition" also happens outside the shuktara homes:

"Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets, which have cut across caste and class lines, and Hindu and Muslim divisions."

shuktara home for young people with disabilities

Improving mobility at RCFC

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At the end of April we posted about a new physiotherapist who started coming to shuktara. The twice-weekly sessions are going really well at the boys' house with Aakash, Subhash and Sumon, and at Lula Bari with Prity, Guria and Moni.

Yesterday he took the three boys to RCFC (Rehabilitation Centre For Children) close by here in Behala to see how we can improve their mobility. Next week he is taking the girls.

They made casts for splints and gave us some good ideas on how to improve and assist mobility within our homes. Looking forward to sharing our next trip when we take the girls!

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Shuktara holiday in Mandarmani

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Last weekend everyone at shuktara went on a seaside holiday to Mandarmani. Many thanks to Sanjib who made this wonderful event happen!

shuktara home for young people with disability - Subhash

Wheels on fire!

Posted on by shuktara

We often think of Sanjib Shaw as one of shuktara's angels.

Sanjib decided to take everyone from shuktara on holiday however for a few of our less mobile young people this is not easy. Not one to let a small issue like limited mobility stop him Sanjib and a group of his friends decided to donate six new wheelchairs to shuktara.

We are overwhelmed by their generosity and wish to thank Sanjib and his wonderful group of friends. We know that everyone will be able to enjoy their holiday and promise to post photos soon!